Texas, 11 others outlaw breed-specific dog bans

Ban on pit bulls? You can't in Texas

Dangerous dogs, such as this one that was involved in the killing of a Harris County boy, are being banned in cities across the U.S.

Dangerous dogs, such as this one that was involved in the killing of a Harris County boy, are being banned in cities across the U.S.

Photo: Buster Dean, Chronicle

Photo: Buster Dean, Chronicle

Image
1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Dangerous dogs, such as this one that was involved in the killing of a Harris County boy, are being banned in cities across the U.S.

Dangerous dogs, such as this one that was involved in the killing of a Harris County boy, are being banned in cities across the U.S.

Photo: Buster Dean, Chronicle

Texas, 11 others outlaw breed-specific dog bans

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

Billie Johnson didn't want to wait around for the kind of dog attack tragedy that occurred in east Harris County last week.

That's why Johnson, a city councilman in the southeast Colorado town of La Junta, proposed an ordinance to ban new pit bulls and require owners of existing pit bulls to put up $100,000 in liability insurance. It passed 4-3 last month amid a hot debate over balancing safety and pet owners' rights.

"We're trying to prevent it before it happens," Johnson said on Friday.

The focus on dangerous dogs heightened locally when 4-year-old Pedro Rios Jr. was fatally mauled at about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday while playing with his 2-year-old brother outside the family home.

But Johnson's ordinance couldn't be passed in Texas, which is one of 12 states that has outlawed bans on specific breeds. Texas cities can declare individual animals as dangerous and mandate registration, physical restraints and liability insurance, as Houston does.

The ordinance in Colorado was not spurred by an attack, but rather is part of a surge of similar measures around the country, according to the American Kennel Club.

The club opposes so-called "breed-specific legislation" and instead supports cracking down on individual owners who don't control their animals.

"In response to a devastating, tragic attack like that, people want some answers," said Niki Friedman, spokeswoman for the American Kennel Club. "So the first thing they do is say, 'Let's eliminate a breed.' It's punishing responsible dog owners and responsible breeders of these dogs."

Blaming humans, not dogs

In the last state legislative session, then-Rep.
Al Edwards
got a bill passed out of the House that dog enthusiasts feared could lead to local breed bans. But a companion bill by a fellow Houston Democrat, Sen.
Rodney Ellis
, failed to survive.

As of Friday, no similar legislation had been filed for the upcoming regular session.

Dale Schuur, president of the Bull Terrier Club of America, argues that cities such as La Junta are taking the easy way out by banning pit bulls or other breeds rather than working to specifically target problem owners and their pets.

"The reality is that any breed of dog, no matter how big or small, can be made to be mean or aggressive, as much as you can ruin the temperament of a human being," Schuur said. "These people (dog fighters) will switch to another breed and teach them to be that way. The problem isn't the dog, it's the human breeding them."

Schuur acknowledges the pit bull has been bred over the last eight decades or so to be more "game" — breeder terminology for "aggressive" — than milder cousins such as bull terriers, Staffordshire bull terriers and American Staffordshire terriers.

The problem, he said, is the dogs can be indistinguishable from one another and innocent animals and owners tend to get singled out.

"People who try to identify these dogs on sight alone who are not experienced dog people do a really lousy job of it," Schuur said in a telephone interview Friday from Michigan, where he lives.

Casting a large net

Dozens of cities big and small have passed various types of bans targeting a variety of breeds. Fairfield, Iowa, has one of the strictest ordinances that bars pit bulls and other bull terriers, Doberman pinschers, Rottweilers, German shepherds, Belgian shepherds, Siberian huskies, malamutes and any other dog weighing more than 100 pounds.

The largest U.S. cities that target certain breeds appear to be Miami and Denver. Denver, like La Junta, is a "home rule" city under Colorado law, giving it an exemption from the state prohibition on breed bans.

Friedman, of the American Kennel Club, said about 70 jurisdictions this fall were weighing various restrictions on specific breeds.

Johnson noted the New York-based organization unsuccessfully intervened in his city's debate.

"You can't believe the correspondence we had from the American Kennel Club, saying how good these dogs are," Johnson, the La Junta councilman, said indignantly, adding that the club didn't sway any votes.